Taming my robo - loosing hope!!

[ahennessy1]

Hi guys, I really need some advice as I'm really started to give up trying to tame my robo as bad as it sounds

I adopted him back in September at 6 months old. He lives in a large 40 - 50 gallon tank, has all the essentials, and more! I've tried giving him the best life possible.

He is an incredibly scared and skiddish hamster. Even as far as me walking around my room he will run and hide, any movements I make and he will run!

I am finding it incredibly hard to tame him. He is awake at around 11 - 12 at night and by then I'm ready to go to bed so that in itself is an issue. However, on many occasions I have stayed up until 1 even 2 in the morning to try and tame him. A typical 'taming session' would go as follows:

1) Open cage door
2) Hamster will hide
3) Lays out treat on hand, at the very end of finger tips
4) Wait 1 - 2 hours, he still WONT come out!!
5) By that time I'm way too tired, give up at go to bed

I've even tried moving him to a travel cage but trying to move him proves incredibly difficult as he just hides in his burrow and will not come out for hours!

I'm really sad as I'd love to be able to tame him but I'm starting to loose all hope is there any other way?

[mangoandmimi]

It's a bit more difficult when they're so nervous, some are much more nervous than others by nature. I think in order to begin hand taming them, they need to have settled down to some degree - ie not running away as soon as you enter the room - otherwise taming attempts can just make things worse.

I'd stick to talking to him and limiting hands in the cage for now until he's more used to your presence. I also got my robo at 6 months and spent a number of months just talking to her without handling as she wasn't comfortable with that at all. Made sure she knew when I was feeding her or giving treats and lots of gentle talking. It did take a relatively long time to be able to handle her but it's not that uncommon with robos. It also helps if you try and get into a feeding routine with them too although it depends on how food oriented your hamster is really.

A photo of your cage might help too, sometimes if a setup isn't quite right for them then they also don't settle properly. I know I've had to tweak my robo's cage a bit until she was happy with the setup so it's worth thinking about if he's got enough cover & places to hide, if he feels secure. Is he in a quiet room and off the floor? Are you cleaning his nest or cage much? Sometimes if they wake up to a changed cage or return to a brand new nest area it can put them off.

It's important to just persevere though, at 6 months it can be a bit more difficult to get them used to people but I'm sure you'll be able to make some progress. Some do take months on end. Just remember to go at his pace.

[Pebbles82]

Hi there. I have the same with our robo - he just runs and hides. Because of the year I've had I just haven't had the time to devote to trying hard to tame him. He will sit and look at me for a chat and it's nice to watch him, but if I open the cage door he hides and if I put my hand in he runs and hides. Don't get disheartened - it may still be possible - and if not, they are well known for being watching pets rather than handling pets. But this site below has a lot of good information on taming robos (which I was going to try if I had time!) Notably they say that tempting a robo with food doesn't word They know all about roborovskis and breed them.

The Roborovski's Dwarf Hamster